The new Cotinus cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor in Grand Haven, Mich. The objective of the breeding program was to produce Cotinus coggygria varieties with new foliage colors. The open pollination resulting in this new variety was made during the Summer of 2011.
The seed parent is the unpatented Cotinus coggygria ‘Little Ruby’. The pollen parent is unknown. The new variety was identified as a potentially interesting selection during the Summer of 2013 in Grand Haven, Mich.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘SMCCDLP’ was first performed in the Summer of 2013 at a commercial nursery in Grand Haven, Mich., using vegetative softwood cuttings. Subsequent propagation has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.